1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for removing particulate and aerosol droplets from a stream of gases. More specifically, the present invention relates to a process for removing entrained particles and droplets of tar from a gas stream originating from a source such as a biomass gasifier so that the resulting cleaned gas stream is suitable fuel for operating an internal combustion device, such as an engine or turbine, which may be coupled to an electrical generator or can be utilized as a synthetic gas for subsequent processing. For the purposes of simplicity, an internal combustion device is discussed herein.
2. Description of the Related Art
Developing countries need decentralized sources of power, i.e. power systems for each remote community. In developing countries, where natural gas, petroleum products, or coal are not readily available to remote communities and hydropower is not possible, communities often have some local form of biomass that could serve as an energy source if that biomass could be converted to electrical power. Locally available forms of biomass might include rice straw or rice hulls, sugar cane bagasse, poultry litter, refuse, paper plant pulp sludge, switchgrass, waste resulting from extraction of olive oil from olives, peanut shells, sawdust or wood chips, wood bark, municipal solid waste, coconut shells, corn cobs, cotton stover, etc.
Industrialized nations have a heightened awareness of the environmentally deleterious effects of the production of "greenhouse gases" including carbon dioxide produced by the combustion of fossil fuels. Many nations have agreed to aggressively reduce their production of these "greenhouse gases" by encouraging the use of alternate, renewable energy such as biomass. A concurrence of nations was reached during the summit conference on the environment that was held in Kyoto, Japan several months ago.
Technology is currently available for converting biomass materials, by heating the biomass materials under starved oxygen conditions, to a gas stream that has sufficient heating value to operate an internal combustion device, i.e. in the range of 125 to 250 BTUs per standard cubic foot, depending on the biomass materials being processed. The resulting gas stream contains nitrogen, carbon dioxide, trace amounts of carry-over ash and tar, and calorific constituents of carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and some alkanes and alkenes. Gasification is recognized worldwide as an innovative method of converting biomass into energy.
However, one of the problems that has been experienced with converting biomass to energy is that the gas stream that is produced by gasification units is contaminated with particulate matter and with aerosol droplets of tar that can foul an internal combustion device unless they are efficiently removed from the gas stream prior to introducing the gas stream into the device. Currently there is not an economical method for effectively removing the entrained particulate matter and the aerosol droplets of tar from these types of gas streams. The reason that the particulate matter and aerosol droplets of tar can not be easily be removed from the gas stream is that a large portion of the particles and droplets are micron to sub-micron in size and are not effectively removed by traditional gas scrubbing processes.
The present invention addresses this problem by combining an indirect gas cooler, a direct contact spray scrubber chamber followed by one or more enhanced vortex chambers. To achieve the desired cleanliness in the resulting gas stream, it may be necessary to employ two or more vortex chambers in series. The indirect gas cooler is a shell and tube heat exchanger that cools the gas stream from the gasifier by indirect heat exchange with a cooling medium such as air or water. The direct contact spray scrubber employs a liquid hydrocarbon, such as used motor oil, to scrub out the particulate matter and some of the organic aerosols that are entrained in the gas stream as the gas stream passes through the direct contact spray scrubber.
Once the gas exits the direct contact spray scrubber, it enters the enhanced vortex or vortices. Each enhanced vortex chamber employs a high-speed fan to propel the remaining entrained droplets of tar against the inside surface of the vortex chamber along with additional oil. When the droplets of tar hit the oil coated inside surface of each vortex chamber, the droplets coalesce on the surface. The tar and oil mixture then gravity flows out of each vortex chamber, thereby removing the tar from the gas stream. The gas stream, having thus been cleaned of its particulate and aerosol impurities, then enters a low-pressure surge tank. If the gasifier is operating a pressure less than atmospheric pressure, an induced draft fan may be employed to convey the gas through the system. From here, the gas stream can be sent directly to the internal combustion device for mixing with combustion air so that it can be burned in such internal combustion device, such as an engine or turbine, which may be coupled to an electrical generator or can be utilized as a synthetic gas for subsequent processing.